Pharmacy Bag

ABSTRACT

A plastic pharmacy purchase bag is disclosed having a seamless perimeter defined by a tubular member folded at a first closed end, and an open end including means for closing the receptacle after use. The plastic tubular member comprises integrally formed walls that terminate in a base at said closed end with the edges of the walls cooperating to form a sealed relationship. An outer surface of the receptacle includes indicia printed thereon.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation-in-part and claims priority from U.S.application Ser. No. 11/063,058, filed Feb. 22, 2005, which is acontinuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 10/423,427 filed Apr. 25,2003, the contents of both of which are incorporated herein by referencein their entirety.

BACKGROUND

Pharmacy prescriptions have traditionally been packaged in opaque whitepaper bags for purposes of privacy and for costs. These paper bagscreate enormous waste and the cost of paper products have made thesebags more expensive than ever. Further, paper bags can tear or ripeasily, particularly when wet, and do not have a reliable method ofsealing. Therefore, the contents of the bag can become lost or spilled,leading to a loss of privacy and possible damage to the product.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention overcomes the shortcomings of the prior art inproviding a seamless pharmacy purchase bag formed of a copolymer plasticmaterial shaped without any longitudinal seams or crevasses. The plasticbag is preferably extruded in its open configuration to provide anopaque bag that is continuous and seamless circumferentially along itsinner surface and is resilient. A first preferred embodiment comprises abag made from a copolymer comprising ethylene and propylene that isheated to approximately 200° C. and then extruded into its final shapeat a pressure of 450 Bar. The resultant bag is approximately 0.0015inches thick and is opaque, pliable, and resilient.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an elevated perspective view of a preferred embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 2 is a bottom view of the embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a step diagram of the method for making the present invention;and

FIG. 4 a-f is a sequence of stages illustrating the method of thepresent invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 illustrates a first preferred embodiment of a pharmacy bag 100 ofthe present invention having a generally open-ended columnar structurecomprising a base 110, a front wall 115, a rear wall 120, and two sidewalls 125 with a crease 130 in the side walls 125 and a crease 135 inthe front wall for collapsing the bag into a planar configuration priorto use. The four walls are integrally formed without a seam such thatthere is a continuous and uniform construction throughout and across thefour walls. That is, the bag 100 is created as a tubular constructionrather than a folded sheet, and thus there are no seams extendinglongitudinally along the bag's walls. Each wall is formed of a commonuninterrupted thickness, and the thickness of the base 110 maypreferably be consistent with the thickness of the four walls.

Closure means is preferably provided along an outer surface of at leastone of the front and rear walls 115,120 along an upper edge. Closuremeans may comprise a twist-tie member (not shown) adhesively secured tothe outer wall that allows the upper portion of the bag to be foldedclosed and secured using the flexible twist-tie member. Alternatively,an adhesive strip 140 may be included along the outer surface forsecuring a first folded edge of the bag 100 to an opposite folded edgein a closed and folded configuration thereby preventing the bag fromunfolding and opening inadvertently. Other closure means exist in theart such as interlocking groove and tab members on the interior ofopposing walls (such as those found on popular plastic sandwich bags),an envelope type overlapping adhesive configuration, and many othersthat may be employed without deviating from the scope of the presentinvention.

The bag 100 of the present invention preferably is formed of a copolymermaterial comprising ethylene and propylene. Pellets of the plastics aremelted into a working composite mixture at about two hundred degreesCelsius (200° C.), along with some additive agents for coloringpurposes. This heated molten compound is placed in a die where anextrusion process forms an open-ended tubular bag (FIG. 4 a) as thecompound flows into the gaps between the extruding member and the die.The extrusion process may take place at a controlled pressure of 450Bar. This process creates an open-ended tubular member with a seamlessperimeter that is not present in paper bags formed from flat sheets.After the extruded tubular member is formed, folds and creases thatconvert the tubular member into a rectangular shaped collapsibleparallelepiped that folds into a flattened configuration are formed(FIGS. 4 c-e). This step is preferably done in an automated settingwherein a machine is utilized to create the folds and creases. Thebottom of the bag (FIG. 2) is closed and sealed with a heat-press at anedge 172 of the tubular member (FIG. 4 f) to ensure that there can be noleakage through the bottom of the bag.

In an optional step, the tubular member is subjected to a printing step(FIG. 4 b) in which printing 150 is applied on an outer surface orsurfaces to include advertising for the pharmacy, as well as possiblyidentifying the manufacture or the customer, present orderinginformation, or the like. The printing 150 is preferably carried out bya Gravure process whereby engraved plates or cylinders include aninverse image of the final indicia, and the plates or cylinders areinked and brought in contact with the outer surface of the tubularmember to leave a remnant impression. This process permits high-speedprinting of many units rapidly before each individual tubular member isformed into a bag.

The tubular member of the extruded copolymer plastic composition isformed into a bag by a sheet folding machine that folds a bottom end 110of the tubular member into a closed configuration using either aheat-applying press or adhesively clamping the bottom edges of theplastic walls. The thus-closed end cooperates with the seamless integralwall configuration to prevent the contents of the bag from exitingthrough the junctures at the bottom and sides of the bag 100. Theuninterrupted and uniform thickness of the walls 115, 120, 125 areapproximately 0.0015 inches thick, and this thickness provides adequatestrength and coverage in the event of weak spots or unexpected thinningof the bag while preserving the flexibility and resiliency of the bagnecessary to fold and stack the articles in confined spaces.

The finished bag 100 is preferably four and one half to five inches talland two and one half inches wide with a three inch bottom gusset in theopen or inflated configuration, but may vary in size. The tolerance onthe thickness is approximately five to ten percent. The bag canpreferably be folded along vertical creases, and along traverse creasesadjacent the base, to contract into a flat, compact pocket-sizeconfiguration prior to use.

FIG. 3 illustrates the steps for manufacturing a preferred embodiment ofthe present invention. Step 200 represents the acquisition of thevarious copolymer constituents used to make the present invention. Uponacquiring the constituents, step 210 corresponds to the mixing andheating of the constituents into a workable composition that can beformed in an extrusion process. The extruding process and cooling step(step 220) follows, where the composition is formed into a tubularmember with a seamless, uniform perimeter. In step 230, the tubularmember is folded and creased using a sheet folding machine into arectangular configuration with creases that cause the tubular member tofold into a bag-shaped configuration. In addition, the bottom end of thebag is sealed closed using heat or adhesive to form a fluid-tight sealto prevent leakage through the bottom of the bag. After the bag has beenformed and cooled, the final step 240 calls for the printing of variousgraphics and information, including instruction, on the outside of thebag. The final printing step is preferably accomplished with a Gravureprocess that allows rapid printing of many bags.

The description above is illustrative only, and is intended to providethe inventor's best mode of making and using the invention. However, itwill be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that the presentinvention can be practiced outside of the present description. Thus, thedisclosure should be viewed as illustrative only, with the scope of theinvention limited only by the language of the claims presented below.

1. A foldable lightweight pharmacy purchase bag, comprising: a copolymermaterial of ethylene and propylene formed into a tubular member havingno seams around a perimeter thereof, said material having a meltingpoint of approximately 200° C. and a thickness of 0.0015 inches, saidtubular member further comprising folds that shape the tubular memberinto an open rectangular shape, said tubular member further comprising afluid-tight seal at a first end formed by heat-pressing edges of thetubular member into a sealed relationship; and an adhesive stripproviding sealing means for closing a second end of said tubular member.